May 31st is celebrated widely as ‘World No Tobacco Day’. It is a day where awareness is spread about the negative effects of tobacco and how smoking is a great health risk. Smoking and chewing tobacco are one of the leading causes for cardiovascular diseases, which is the leading cause of death in the UAE, according to Gulf News. “Most people associate cigarette, pipe, and cigar use with breathing problems and lung cancer. But they [remain unaware] of the adverse effects on the ...

Informed sources said that the Saudi National Committee for Tobacco Control is in the process of imposing fines of up to $1,300 ( SAR 5,000) on smokers in several locations, defined by the anti-smoking regulations. In the next phase, the committee will provide mobile clinics to treat smokers after booking treatment. The imposed penalties for tobacco intake will include using cigarette, cigar, pipe, jig, shisha, chewing, storage or any other relevant method. The Regulations approved the ...

A new tax dubbed the “sin tax” is being implemented in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, with a fee being added to tobacco products and soft drinks. Tobacco and energy drinks will be taxed at 100 percent and soft drinks at 50 percent. The new tax push comes as the UAE and other oil-rich Gulf nations have struggled with low global energy prices. The UAE will start collecting a 5-percent value-added tax on certain goods in January. All six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, ...

A bride in India was shocked to the core when she spotted the groom chewing “gutka” (tobacco) during the ceremony so much so that she refused to marry him, a news report has revealed. According to a Hindustan Times report, the groom, a resident of Dalan Chapara in Uttar Pradesh province, reached the venue with his wedding party at Lalganj village where a grand reception was organized. However, while he was entering the wedding arena, the bride spotted him chewing “gutka” ...

Following Saudi Arabia’s announcement to increase the prices of tobacco and its derivatives by 100 percent, grocery stores and retail shops witnessed increased sale of cigarettes and tobacco ahead of implementing the tax on Sunday 12 pm, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported. Common tobacco brands are no longer available in several stores while the retail activity of soda and energy drinks, which have been also taxed, was not greatly affected. Some have said that wholesale sales of these drinks ...

Saudi Arabia has announced the increase of the prices of tobacco and its derivatives by 100 percent in accordance with the decision of the Gulf Cooperation Council at its 36th session, which approved the amendment of the minimum threshold for the fulfillment of tobacco in the unified tariff in the GCC. At the end of last week, smokers on social networking sites circulated a letter from the Director General of Customs in Saudi Arabia announcing that the new price will be come into effect at the ...

A Cuban cigar maker broke his own record on Friday by rolling the world's longest cigar at 90 meters (295 feet), the length of a soccer field, dedicating the monster smoke to Fidel Castro ahead of the retired leader's 90th birthday. Castro, who took power in Cuba's 1959 revolution and ruled for nearly half a century, was often seen puffing on his favored, long and thin lancero model until he quit in 1985. For Cueto, a 72-year-old who learned cigar rolling when he was 5 years old, it is a matter ...

India's capital has banned chewing tobacco in an effort to lower the high incidence of mouth and throat cancers. The Delhi government ordered the prohibition of the sale, purchase and possession of all forms of chewable tobacco, saying violators can be imprisoned for up to six months and fined up to 300,000 rupees ($4,500). Chewable tobacco products reportedly cause 90 percent of all mouth cancers in India. Tobacco manufacturers won a court stay against earlier bans, but public awareness about ...

In Saudi Arabia, KAFA Association for raising awareness of the dangers of smoking has revealed spending at least thirty million riyals per day on cigarette packs, and that smoking causes the death of twenty two thousand people annually. Health experts and doctors have launched new warnings of smoking, however, most of them do not get the attention of the consumer despite smoking health and financial damage